Have you ordered anything from Amazon by simply talking to your Alexa or Echo? Don’t feel bad if you haven’t, because the latest analysis (“The Majority of US Adults Have No Interest in Voice Shopping”) from the marketing research firm eMarketer shows that fewer than 1 in 10% of all Americans have ever engaged in “voice shopping.” And in fact, just 2% of U.S. consumers report doing so at present on a regular basis. In fact, if you dig into their summary findings, as shown in Figure 1 (How Interested Are US Adults in Voice Shopping?) below, there are some very interesting insights that point to a very difficult road ahead for Amazon and other companies banking on the growth of voice shopping. However, there are also signs in eMarketer’s findings that point towards the potential for ordering by speaking to become an important new shopping channel moving forward. We explore both ends of the argument over the future of voice shopping in this article to provide insights for readers as to how and where vocal shopping can indeed fit into today’s fast-changing marketing mix.

Figure 1

Source: eMarketer, https://www.emarketer.com/chart/243030/how-interested-us-adults-voice-shopping-of-respondents-by-demographic-dec-2020 (Used with permission)

The Voice Shopping Conundrum

At first glance, that chart would not seem very friendly to marketers. Not only has there been light penetration to date — less than 2% of Americans being regular voice shoppers and 7% more ever having used their Amazon Alexa or Echo to make a purchase, there is not a great deal of receptivity among consumers as to the vision of voice shopping that Amazon has painted as an important part of the future of the way we will shop:

In fact, when voice shopping has been a “hot” topic, it hasn’t been because consumers were thrilled with the convenience of placing an order for snacks or dishwasher detergent simply by talking to their smart speaker. More often, it is because a pet bird placed an Amazon order…

…or their kid placed a pricey order on their parent’s Echo:

While there’s truly no such thing as bad publicity from a marketing standpoint, well, in this case, seeing stories like these doesn’t help people overcome their hesitancy — and in many cases aversion — to the thought of voice shopping. And yes, 58% of all Americans stated that they had not used voice shopping and were not interested in doing so.

Photo by Jan Antonin Kolar on Unsplash

Analysis

Overall, as a strategic management professor and consultant, I would say that while the eMarketer data seems to be discouraging news on the surface, I do see a significant upside in all of this regarding what, on the surface, would seem to be consumer disinterest in shopping by speaking to their smart speaker. Digging into the numbers though — beyond that bright blue flashing warning sign on eMarketer’s summary chart, there are encouraging signs that marketers should pay attention to and perhaps take an optimistic view of the future of voice shopping. Consider the fact that a quarter of all Americans who have not yet shopped via voice are either very (6%) or somewhat (19% interested in doing so. Further, look at the “other,” less bright and bold blue number on the right side of the chart, where 9% of US adults responded that they did not know what voice shopping was at present. Thus, you have a third of all Americans who have either voice shopped or are very open to doing so, plus about 1 in 10 consumers who don’t know about shopping by voice. That is a huge potential audience — and market — for Amazon and for the future of voice shopping. Additionally, the usage of — and favorabile feelings toward — voice shopping is highest in the 18–34 age group. This, of course, should not be surprising due to younger consumers almost always being the drivers of newer technology adoption.

I would thus recommend that marketers pay careful and close attention to the developments in regard to voice shopping over the next few years. And so the message here is simple: An important part of the future of shopping may well yet lie in that Amazon or Google smart speaker that you have been using to play music or to ask what the weather will be like today. It is important to remember that this is still a nascent market, as the latest stats show that just 1 in 4 Americans even have a smart speaker in their home — and the numbers are even lower in China (approximately 1 in 10) and other countries abroad. We are thus still in the early stages of the adoption cycle for smart speakers, and as with all technologies, we can only expect the tech to improve — and to become cheaper — over time. And as more and more consumers — not just in the United States, but around the world — own smart speakers and find more and more uses for them, it is likely that shopping will be one of those uses. Thus, companies that move today to prepare for voice shopping to be a part of their marketing strategies going forward will likely win big over the long-term, even with the data to date on shopping by talking.

Yes, Amazon and Google will win — and win big — as voice shopping will almost inevitably grow in utilization as smart speakers grow in use. To what levels will voice shopping grow and what forms of shopping will it displace are literally questions with many billions of dollars on the line, but not just for these tech behemoths. Indeed, smart marketers in consumer-facing companies of all sizes should be thinking now about how to make voice a part of their marketing strategies both now and into a very vocal future.

David Wyld ([email protected]) is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. Social Media Links to David Wyld: on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Twitter.

The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article we publish. This story contributed to World-Class Designer School: a college-level, tuition-free design school focused on preparing young and talented African designers for the local and international digital product market. Build the design community you believe in.